Money, Mobility and Morality among Gamblers in Urban India

By Ph.D fellow Stine Simonsen Puri
The project is affiliated the collective research project Alternative Spaces and financed by The Danish Council for Strategic Research. Stine Puri has in addition received an elite research travel grant from The Research Minister of Denmark.
 

The Race course as an Alternative Space

The Ph.D. project is based on a long term fieldwork among gamblers or "punters" at Delhi Race Course. The aim is to investigate economic practices inside the gambling arena, and how it is connected to the society at large. The research shows how the race course is an alternative space, in which the overall moral on gambling is kept out. This allows gamblers to live double lives. The alternative space thus stands in contrast to the surrounding society, yet it has to be understood partly as a reaction to it.
 

The Themes of the Study

A main theme is that of corruption and mistrust, and how this affects gambling strategies. The study looks into how the uncertainty of corruption is transformed into a system of risk based primarily on information sharing. In this context, the coexistence of legal and illegal economies is investigated. In the study, problem gambling is considered along socio-ecconomi and cultural parameters related to family traditions, class structure and religio-cultural narratives. Overall the study through a focus on gamblers, take a look into neo-liberal urban India; its new money and moral dilemmas in a capital in which its people are focused on class and status.
 
Supervisor: Prof. Esther Fihl
Co-supervisor: Associate Professor Morten Pedersen